There’s one way to fall out of love with Mandalay Bay. Staying there. Mandalay Bay is an ultra hip, cool place. It’s practically the only reason to go to its far end of The Strip. (You’re certainly not making the trip for Luxor). It’s nightclubs, gambling scene (more than two roulette tables running at one time, My God what are they thinking?) and scantily clad cocktail waitresses can be second to none. The problems start when you check in and you’re suddenly second class. From shoddy housekeeping to waiters in their own world to no advance notice of the major pool ... full post »

Did Rush Limbaugh go Donovan McNabb on Michelle Wie? In an interview with TravelGolf.com no less? It’s apparent that Limbaugh thinks that Time magazine tried to make it seem that way. After Time published a Wie Q&A that asked her what she thought of a comment taken from our interview with Limbaugh, the radio king sprang into action. He not only talked about it on air Monday, in a hilarious diatribe (listen here), he posted the transcript on the front page of his Web site under the blaring headline “I have nothing against Michelle Wie!” Yes, Rush Limbaugh is unafraid of ... full post »

All those Michelle Wie fans who think she’s above TravelGolf.com are in for a rude awakening when the new issue of Time magazine hits newstands Monday. For Time uses our Rush Limbaugh interview to ask Wie a question in their Q&A. While Time doesn’t actually credit TravelGolf.com - we forgive them this time - it’s apparent where this question comes from: Rush Limbaugh reportedly said something about you recently [calling her a “triumph of marketing"] A simple internet search will show you the only place where Limbaugh called Wie “a triumph of marketing.” Michelle Wie may not have sat down with TravelGolf.com ... full post »

Greg Norman can finally exhale. Greg Owen - who was always only Greg Owen anyways - needn’t fret. Davis Love III should feel free to joke about going from the lead to headed home in a flash at the Players Championship. For no golf choke will ever compare to what Gonzaga star Adam Morrison pulled off in the closing seconds of an NCAA Tournament game. Morrison started crying on the court with a few seconds left in the game and his team only down by a basket. This is a future NBA player, one of the top two Player of the Year ... full post »

If you want to bash Rush Limbaugh, there’s surely plenty of ammunition out there. Just bring some of it. Deal in facts. Instead we have TravelGolf.com’s ambiguously liberal duo Tim McDonald - a waffler of John Kerry proportions and William K. Wolfrum - a man so out there that Howard Dean thinks he’s wacky - engaging in schoolyard name calling. First, there’s McDonald calling Limbaugh a “Third Reich radio commentator", which isn’t offensive as much as it’s absurd. But McDonald wasn’t done yet. Having run out of his “A material", he threw in “fat.” Insightful. Then there’s K. the man who thinks everyone’s ... full post »

Scottsdale is one of the most sophisticated cities on the West Coast with its plethora of great restaurants, happening night clubs and of course, showstopping golf. In fact, Scottsdale’s so eager to be hip these days - often successfully, sometimes trying much to hard and failing comically - that it’s easy to forget its cowboy roots. They did used to have cattle runs right on Scottsdale Road - the main street all the hipness now feeds off. Spend a lot of time here though and you’ll still see traces of that cowboy vibe. You’ll play a round with a guy who makes ... full post »

It’s sad day for all those high brow, low class Dukies, those Wie Warriors who soak up Michelle Wie’s marketing mumbo jumbo like rats following the Pied Piper (or Cameron Crazies trailing Coach Bully Fraud) and the breathtaking but delusional Jennifer Mario (think of the girl in The Glass Menagerie). I’m getting yet more love for my brilliant, fakers-revealing prose. Justin Timberlake’s fans - now these are lovely people - have waxed poetic about my Timberlake truths in their shrine message board. I particularly enjoy the “There are so many wonderful quotes in this article that I think I will come ... full post »

Scottsdale boasts some of the best restaurants on the West Coast. But they tend to fall into two categories: underrated with really good food or trendy overhyped with decent, vastly overpriced food. Vu at Hyatt Regency Scottsdale Resort & Spa breaks the mold and manages to pull off both. You will not find a cooler setting in Scottsdale than this two-level dinning room with an huge opening on the lower level bringing in the open air and a view of water. Yet this is the rare modern restaurant that doesn’t sacrifice your comfort for glossy magazine style. The bold red curtains are ... full post »

The most hilarious of all the sidesplitting Mike Krzyzewski as the Blessed Virgin Mary arguments advanced by these rabid supposedly high brow Dukies is this one: Coach K “gave up” $40 million of LA Lakers money because he’s committed to education and higher athletic ideals. Please. Even the shameless marketers pushing Michelle Wie would be embarrassed to try and create an illusion that transparently ridiculous. Krzyzewski isn’t coaching in the NBA for one reason and one reason only. He knows there is no way the pros would take his Hand of God bullying. When Krzyzewski resorted to screaming flying spittle, his best ... full post »

Phil Mickelson carries a rep - a largely bum rep - as being a fingernails-on-chalkboard annoying faker. But if you want a real sports fraud, you don’t have to look far. Especially this time of year. If it’s March Madness, you’ll have Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski preaching the virtues of sportsmanship in his holier than thou press conferences and then screaming swear words at his players on the sidelines and pleading for yet another grossly Blue Devil favored officiating night. Coach K is Bobby Knight with a good publicist. Only he lacks any of Knight’s realness. No one has a more vile ... full post »

Showed up at Sanctuary Golf Course at WestWorld in Scottsdale and was promptly told by the cart kid that the bad weather had driven all the golfers away. It was about 65 degrees and sunny. Oh sure, there was a brisk, little wind blowing, but this was nothing that would give you a chill, let alone send shots flying every which way. This incident followed a day in which the Arizona Republic found a golfer who’d been chased from TPC Stadium by the rain. Five drops of rain. Literally. This rain didn’t even register as official (not measurable). The Phoenix valley is in the ... full post »

How detailed is the new book that goes into Barry Bonds’ steroid progression? Even Bill Clinton couldn’t talk his way out of his one. Let alone bombastic Barry. Baseball’s nightmare is the kind of thing that should make PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem ever grateful modern golf has Tiger Woods as its historic star. You can bet Tiger will never do anything to embarrass golf. Not that Finchem deserves any credit for this. His steroids stance is one of the biggest underreported jokes in sports. I wrote about this in February 2005 and little has changed since. Finchem just got lucky. To have Woods ... full post »

Show up at 3 p.m. in the wintertime talking about getting in a full 18 in most golf destinations and you’ll get some strange looks. Even winter golf destinations. Forget the looks. You may find yourself being fitted for a Hannibal Lecter jacket. Except if you’re in Phoenix-Scottsdale. For here you can show up at 3 p.m. and reasonably assume you’ll be finishing a complete 18. In fact, if you don’t it’s probably because you picked the wrong course for your late-day play. With Arizona’s golf-geared refusal to fall back and observe the arcane farmer orientated daylight savings time system, sunsets are well after ... full post »

Paula Creamer at the Oscars. Now that’s great form. Does anything else have to be said? Really. Here’s the LPGA’s photo array of the true threat to Annika Sorenstam’s throne getting ready for the Academy Awards. And I wondered why I couldn’t concentrate on her hands in my golf lesson? There are some other golfers in the shots as well. Including the vastly overhyped (in more ways than one) Natalie Gulbis. I’d post the photos right on this blog, but that LPGA commissioner whiz Carolyn Bivens would have required a DNA sample, the rights to my third child and a coupon for Applebee’s ... full post »

Phil Mickelson delivered one of the great little side moments in sports Saturday. No, not his slide from tied for the lead with Tiger Woods to four shots back. Phil losing it while being paired with Tiger is as old news as Lindsay Lohan’s dad having a little trouble behind the wheel. Mickelson’s moment came when he launched a shot into the gallery on Doral’s 10th hole and got a lucky bounce off a fan’s wristwatch. When the ball rocketed off the watch, it smashed it. This caused Mickelson to promptly go over to the stunned fan and hand over two Ben ... full post »

While waiting for my postcard from the lovely Jennifer Mario from the Fields Open - come on Jen, I know it’s Hawaii, but what’s taking so long! - it’s time to comment on a Michelle Wie story that all of Wie’s adoring press corps completely ignored. If Terrell Owens acted like Michelle Wie did at the Fields Open he’d be getting ripped from San Francisco to Philadelphia. All over again. But because it’s the lovable Wie, it’s not even discussed. When Bode Miller scoffs at the importance of victory, he becomes a national punch line. When Michelle Wie does it … well, she’s ... full post »